Horse Trainer (ANZSCO 361112)

On the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and Core Skills Occupation List

From the official Home Affairs skilled occupation lists, as at 2026-08-12. Lists change at each government update — always confirm on the official page before acting.

Which lists is Horse Trainer on?

MLTSSL — Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List. The widest list — occupations on the MLTSSL can access the points-tested permanent skilled visas including the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), which needs no state nomination or employer.

CSOL — Core Skills Occupation List. The employer-sponsorship list — occupations on the CSOL can be nominated for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme 186.

Visas this occupation can access

Being on a list makes the occupation nominatable for these visas — each visa still has its own requirements (points, age, English, a positive skills assessment, and for sponsored visas a willing employer or state).

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Horse Trainer comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

TRA assesses Horse Trainer through the same generic Migration Skills Assessment process as the rest of this family: qualification and employment history compared against Australian standards, no substitute accepted for a formal qualification, an Employer Template form and pay evidence required for each employment period claimed. Self-employment is explicitly permitted — relevant here, since owner-trainer and sole-trader arrangements are common in racing — provided the applicant can still meet the documentary evidence standard. Horse Trainer is the only code in this family that reaches a points-tested visa, so a successful assessment can be followed by TRA's separate Migration Points Advice service, which reports comparability to Home Affairs but does not itself allocate points.

Where these applications come unstuck

Horse Trainer is the sole TRA-assessed code among six occupations in its unit group; every sibling — Dog Handler or Trainer, Pet Groomer, Zookeeper, Kennel Hand, Animal Attendants nec — is assessed by VETASSESS and tops out at STSOL or ROL, so a reader searching by the general "working with animals" theme is likelier to land on a lower-reach VETASSESS sibling than on the one code that reaches MLTSSL. A second, separate trap sits after the visa: TRA has no view on state racing licensing, and a trainer licensed in one state who assumes that licence lets them also train interstate is wrong — each state or territory racing authority licenses separately, with no automatic transfer.

An honest read on this pathway

Horse Trainer reaches every visa in this corpus's set bar 407-only variants — 186, 189, 190, 407, 482, 485, 491, 494 — via MLTSSL and CSOL, the widest reach of any occupation in this family. The TRA skills assessment is a real, open pathway, including for self-employed sole traders. What it does not do is authorise training a horse anywhere: Racing Australia's own description confirms licensing sits with eight separate state and territory racing authorities, each granting its own licence under a nationally shared rulebook it then supplements with its own state-specific rules — insurance conditions and other specifics verified here for NSW only, not assumed to be identical elsewhere.

Going through Trades Recognition Australia? TRA pathways lean heavily on documented work history and evidence of on-the-job experience. The Employment History Builder reconstructs it with gap detection, so the record you submit holds together.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Horse Trainer is your best route depends on your points, experience evidence and timing — exactly what a MARA-registered agent works through in an initial consultation. Describe your situation once through Migratio and compare real consultation quotes from registered agents, free.

Compare registered agents — free

Related occupations

All skilled occupations · Points calculator · Skilled visa agents